THE SMALL-POX CASES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13137, 27 May 1903, Page 6

THE SMALL-POX CASES.

The announcement that there has been a case of small-pox in Dunedin need not increase the alarm Of the public. The facts concerning this case have been set out as fully as necessary in our columns, and this morning we publish a note explaining, to some extent, the delay of the medical, authorities in ascertaining the exact nature of the malady. But there is one very unsatisfactory feature in the incident. The “ discovery ” of the case, so far as the public were concerned, was actually made in Christchurch, The patient landed an Dunedin from the Gracchus a fortnight ago, and developed suspicious symptoms almost! immediately. According to the Dunedin newspapers the medical authorities “regarded the case as one of small-pox, and treated it ns such.” Why, then, did wo hear nothing of it nntil«Monday7 Rumours were, of course, in circulation, and if a vigilant reporter in. this city had not traced them to their source the good people of. Dunedin would probably never have knowni that they, had a case in their midst. The news was telegraphed to Dunedin in the first place by the Press Association’s agent here, and it was this message that induced the. Dunedin authorities to make ~thei:,ciroumstanoes püblic. Wo do not attribute the blame for this secrecy to the ActingChief Health Officer. In Christchurch Dr Yalintino was frankness itself, and the local officers were similarly ready to give the public information. But the Dunedin authorities seem to have pursued the foolish policy tiiat was adopted here 'regarding bubonic plague some time ago. We do not know what explanation Dr Ogston may have to offer. There was nothing to be gained by secrecy, for the policy of the Department, in its anxiety to encourage vaccination, has certainly not been to minimise the gravity of the position; As a matter of history is worth recalling the fact that on© of the Auckland cases of plague had) to bo “discovered” in Christchurch, the colony obtaining its first information in that instance, as in the Dunedin incident, from ourselves. The failure of the authorities to make any announcement in Dunedin is the more reprehensible 'because the southern city has simply no place to which small-pox! patients could bo sent for isolation. The treatment of cases, however mild/in private houses is highly dangerous and unsatisfactory in every why, and it is well that Dr Yalintino is now endeavouring to rouse the public to a proper sense of the position.'